Hedges

Whilst making some haystacks from a rubber-backed coir mat based on ones I saw at the "game in a barn" last year its struck me the mat could also be used to make some nice and organic looking hedges. The results were (I think) superb, and it only took me about 3 hours to make 12 feet of hedge at a cost of probably less than 50p per foot. The coir underneath shows through as the wood branches, and the irregular nature of the coir makes it look very natural.

The original mat, and a hedge strip stipple painted green

I'm sure many others have already found this technique, but for the record (and my memory!) this is what I did:

• Cut the mat into strips about 15mm wide, and then to desired length.
• Stipple paint the coir with a dark green acrylic, so its about 50%-66% covered with plenty of plain coir showing through
• Use a spray fixative to spray the coir with glue
• Drench in your favourite flock. I had a fine dark green, and a lumpy pale green, doing some in each, and some in a layer of dark and then of pale. If doing again I'd be tempted to just mix all the flocks together and depend on the powers of randomness!
• Cut base strips from PDF or 1/16th ply, about 20mm wide and to length
• Paint the base strips dark green (I use an acrylic spray paint)
• Stick the rubber/plastic backing to the base strip
• Paint exposed base strip in thinned PVA glue and cover with your preferred ground flock

Here are some image of the final hedges.

As you can see they are ideal for a low 20mm hedge. To get a "high" hedge then sticking two strips back to back, and then stick the "top" of the lower one to the base should work fine - will try that next!

Now that's out of the way I can get on with my Salute items!